Amy Reichert

For those of you still reading this little blog, even with my inconsistent posting, yay for me (and you). I’ve decided to make some changes for the short term because I’ve struggled with new topics. At this stage, I’m still querying The Cake Effect, and I’m still flushing out an outline for No. 2. As it turns out, I’m not so good at writing a novel without a complete outline. So I’m working on that. Unfortunately, all of that was delayed by the holidays, vacation, and the general snotty, winter sickness. With that behind me and the entire year of…

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want my book to be. I know, it seems a little late to dwell on that, but I am. “Well, Amy, it’s a romantic comedy book,” you may be thinking. For those in the industry, you may use the term “women’s fiction.” That is a whole other blog post/ rant.  When I envision my book, I know where it will go in the book store (Fiction), I even know what I would like the cover to look like (though that won’t be in my hands).  I’m talking bigger picture. Ultimately, how do…

It’s November 1 (probably Nov. 2 by the time this gets posted), and that brings to mind the annual question, should I participate in Nanowrimo. What’s that you ask? Excellent question. The short answer, it is National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by November 30. The long answer? I’ll let the experts at www.nanowrimo.org explain things.  A few years ago, I participated in Nanowrimo for a week, then life took over and only managed 6000 words. That wasn’t much of a start, but it was the firm shove I needed; The Cake Effect…

I’m feeling a bit scattered these days. I can’t focus on anything. I’ve written two different blog entries (three if you count this one), but couldn’t pull either into something coherent. It’s like my brain is full of spaghetti, and every time I reach in to pull something out, it’s a different noodle. There is a lot going on in there, but its just a tangled mass of squiggly deliciousness, and I don’t have the patience to sort it out.  School is now going in earnest. I’ve got my volunteer times designated, my workout times designated, and, most importantly, my…

I’m a path of least resistance kind of gal. I buy more underwear than necessary so I don’t need to do laundry as often, I put cardboard under my mulch to keep the weeds down, and I use the razors with the soap attached so I don’t have to use shaving cream. I’m a walker, not a runner and prefer to exercise indoors (fewer hills). I screen most of my phone calls so I don’t have to talk with telemarketers, and I hide in the bedroom when the Jehovah’s Witnesses ring the doorbell. Heck, I’ve even stayed with boyfriends way…

Summertime. It seems so innocent, full of relaxing days brimming with chilled lemonade and frolicking children. Summertime is for kicking back poolside, grilling burgers and brats, and imbibing mojitos with fresh mint from the garden. Children play outdoors from dawn to dusk, happy to be free of education’s four walls and florescent lighting. Somewhere, my children missed the message and summer has been one long marathon of summer school, sports, scheduled events and blistering heat. (I’m so sick of air conditioning.) And the children, my beautiful children, have bickered and wrestled and yanked every nerve I have. Aren’t they supposed…

Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Yep. That’s what I’m doing. I can’t help myself. Queries have been launched into the ether, pinging off servers between here and New York. And now I’m staring at my inbox. And waiting. Refresh. (Not sure what a query is? Read my previous blog post here.)  Remember as a child, when time slowed in the days leading up to your birthday, each day lasting longer than the one before. You couldn’t wait for the presents, the party, the cake. Would you get the Millenium Falcon you asked for, the new bike, the Rainbow Brite doll (fist bump…

Whew. Revisions are done and off into the ether, but I never thought I’d get there. I’d write something, then delete, write something else, then delete. I had pages of notes and ideas scribbled in my notebook or written in the margins of my manuscript, yet I felt like city folk lost in a Halloween corn maze at the pumpkin farm. I knew where I wanted to go, but there were too many paths. During the first draft, I just wrote. I wrote for me, the story I wanted to tell, how I wanted to tell it. While my story…

Part of my revisions process is finding better, more poetic ways to convey events and describe emotions. While writing, clichés and trite descriptions appeared as placeholders, but now I’m trying to make them unique and more appropriate for my book. If I’m lucky, they’ll even reflect some of my themes. For fun, I’m sharing what I do. I’m trying to come up with a new opening sentence to the book, something that will touch on the themes, be a little funny, and set the tone for the opening scene. I’ve written a new opening chapter as a means to show…

Truth: Revision resembles a backyard filled with peanut butter slathered toddlers, wiggly puppies and hungry grizzly bears. While chaotic and confusing, there is a lot of good stuff happening, great even, but what’s bad is horrible and fixing it requires finesse, heavy-duty tranquilizers, Dawn dish soap (peanut butter is tough to get off) and vats of cheap liquor. This week I’m tackling plot points, choosing more interesting actions to reflect my character’s personalities and push them toward certain actions. Some examples involve high-end stationary (did you know people pay $500 plus for 100 notecards – insane), hidden identities, and bad…